BNY Mellon launches Emerging Market Corporate Debt Fund
BNY Mellon, the global leader in investment management and investment servicing, announces the launch of the BNY Mellon Emerging Markets Corporate Debt Fund.
This is the second fund in its range to be managed by Insight Investment Management (Global) Limited, part of BNY Mellon Asset Management. A UCITS fund offering daily pricing liquidity, the Fund will be a sub-fund of the Dublin-domiciled BNY Mellon Global Funds, plc range.
The Fund, which launched on 31 January 2012, is managed by Insight Investment's Emerging Market Debt team, headed by Colm McDonagh, which has experience in managing an extensive range of credit funds with established track records.
Alan Mearns, chief executive officer of BNY Mellon Asset Management International, comments, "We believe that the emerging market corporate debt asset class is the next significant ‘structural' component within the emerging market universe. The addition of this Fund to our range to sit alongside the highly regarded BNY Mellon Emerging Markets Debt Local Currency Fund underlines our commitment to being a leader in providing emerging market debt products in Europe."
The Fund will aim to generate a total return comprised of income and capital growth by investing primarily in corporate debt and related financial derivative instruments issued by emerging market issuers worldwide. The Fund will consist of a globally diversified ‘best ideas' portfolio seeking to invest in the most compelling risk-adjusted opportunities, irrespective of benchmark weighting, from both US Dollar and local currency issuers. A core aim of the Fund will be to capture the existing structural premium available from emerging market issuers compared with similar corporate issuers in developed markets. In addition, the Fund will invest in the credit improvement of newer issuers as emerging countries gain a more significant share of global GDP and global trade. The focus will be investment in issues of a sufficient size to ensure good liquidity.
Abdallah Nauphal, chief executive officer at Insight Investment, added, "With our 20-strong, award-winning specialist credit team already covering emerging market corporate issuers for existing emerging markets, investment grade, European, high yield and credit strategies, we believe we are well placed to identify the corporate bond investment ideas with the most attractive risk/reward characteristics from the growing emerging market corporate debt sector and to deliver positive returns over the medium-to-long term for our clients."
The Fund's investment philosophy is founded on the belief that there is a premium that can be captured by identifying corporate issuers of similar or better quality to developed market peers, while the structural development of emerging economies means that new corporate issuers can offer attractive total return opportunities to early investors. Fundamental and liquidity analysis will be essential to avoid the credit and volatility challenges associated with poor-quality issuers. In addition, the Fund's investment process will combine the fundamental analysis and global sector valuation by Insight Investment's credit team with the emerging market country macro understanding of the firm's emerging markets specialist team.
Colm McDonagh, portfolio manager of the BNY Mellon Emerging Markets Corporate Debt Fund, concluded, "With over 35% of the world's GDP represented by emerging market countries, and likely to reach 50% in 10 years, it is expected that future economic growth will be driven from these regions. Emerging market corporates have always been part of our investment opportunity, however the asset class has gained significant depth over recent years. We believe that this warrants and permits a dedicated investment vehicle. The structural shift currently underway in emerging consumer spending patterns creates an attractive investment opportunity, and we believe the structure and return profile of corporate bonds are the best part of the capital structure to capture this improvement."
The Fund is currently available for distribution in the UK and Republic of Ireland. BNY Mellon Asset Management, subject to regulatory approvals, is aiming to have the Fund registered for distribution across Europe.